Levon Aronian
Number of games in database: 1,927
Years covered: 1993 to 2015
Last FIDE rating: 2797(2813 rapid, 2850 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2830Overall record: +498 -192 =714 (60.9%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
523 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

Levon Grigorievich Aronian was born in Yerevan and learned to play chess when he was nine years old. He is a former U12 (1994) and Junior (U20) World Champion (2002), became an International Master in 1996 at 13, and became a Grandmaster in 2000 at 17. He has been a Candidate on four occasions: 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2014.

Aronian easily won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the World Championship Candidates (2011). He was was eliminated from the latter contest in the first round when he fell to Alexander Grischuk in the rapid game playoff 1.5-2.5 (+1 =1 -2) after tieing the classical games 2-2 (+0 =4 -0). Aronian qualified via his rating for the right to play in the World Championship Candidates (2013) that was played in London in March 2013. He was in contention for first for most of the tournament, but he lost some games late in the tournament to place 3rd with 8/14, half a point behind the leaders Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik respectively. He was seeded into the World Chess Championship Candidates (2014) by rating, as he met the condition that he must first participate in the World Cup (2013), where he defeated Kyrgyzstani IM Mikhail Markov in the first round and Igor Lysyj in the second round but lost to eventual semi-finalist GM Evgeny Tomashevsky in the third round. At the Candidates that were held in March 2014 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Aronian was in strong contention for the lead until round 9, but then crashed to score only 3 draws in the last 6 rounds to finish 6th in the final standings.

However, 2013 saw Aronian placing clear second behind Carlsen at the category 20 Tata Steel (2013) event, scoring 8.5/13 and signalling a strong return to form prior to the Candidates Tournament that was held in March 2013. Subsequent to the Candidates, Aronian won the category 20 Alekhine Memorial (2013) with 5.5/9 on tiebreak ahead of Boris Gelfand and then placed =4th at the category 21 Norway Chess Tournament (2013), scoring 5/9. In September he placed 3rd in the category 22 DRR Sinquefield Cup (2013) quadrangular tournament behind Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, falling below 2800 for the first time since September 2010. However, he recovered his form and his 2800 rating in a major hitout in the lead up to the 2014 Candidates by winning the category XXI quadrangular DRR Bilbao Masters (2013) using the "soccer scoring" system wherein his +2 =4 translated into an outright first with 10 points ahead of the 9 points (+2 -1 =3) scored by runner up Michael Adams. Possibly the best result of his career came when he won the category 20 Tata Steel (2014) event with a round to spare, the final score being 8/11, a point and a half clear of the field. He placed 2nd behind Carlsen in the category 23 standard time Zurich Chess Challenge (2014), even after losing his 5th round game to Loek van Wely. Immediately before the standard time event he was =1st with Carlsen in the preliminary Zurich Chess Challenge (Blitz) (2014) which determined the draw. He placed 3rd in the Zurich Chess Challenge (Rapid) (2014), which when combined with the results in the main event provided him with an overall placement of 2nd, again behind Carlsen. His next major event was the Sinquefield Cup (2014), and which produced a relatively poor result by his standards, 5th placement with 4/10. He performed better at the Bilbao Masters (2014), placing 2nd behind Anand on the 3-1-0 scoring system used for the event and at the Petrosian Memorial (2014), where he placed =3rd behind Grischuk and Kramnik.

<Chess960> In 2003 Aronian won the Finet Chess960 open at Mainz; this qualified him for a match against Chess960 World Champion Peter Svidler at Mainz the following year, a match which he lost 4½-3½. He won the Finet Chess960 open tournament again in 2005 which earned him a rematch with Svidler in 2006, and this time he won the match this time 5-3 in an 8-game match to become Chess960 World Champion. In 2007 he successfully defended his title of Chess960 World Champion by beating Anand, but lost the title in 2009 to Nakamura.

In April 2012, Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik, as part of their preparation for the 2013 Candidates Tournament, played a six-game training match in Zurich. The Kramnik - Aronian (2012) match was drawn 3-3 (+1 -1 =4).

Rapids

Aronian is a worthy successor to Anand in the rapid play versions of the game, and a fierce rival of Carlsen and Nakamura. In May 2007 he won 4-2 in the Kramnik - Aronian Rapid Match (2007). He also won the 2009 World Rapid Championship when he took out the Chess Classic Mainz (rapid) (2009), and then followed up by winning the World Blitz Championship (2010) with 24.5/38, clinching the title with a round to spare.
In March 2008 he won the 17th Melody Amber blindfold/rapid tournament held in Nice, France, 2½ points ahead of the other nearest competitors. Apart from his first place win in the overall tournament, he also took sole first place in the Amber Tournament (Rapid) (2008) section of the tournament (winning by a margin of 1½ points) and shared first place in the Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2008) section with Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich, and Topalov. In March 2009 he again won at the Melody Amber tournament, scoring a combined 14 points in 22 games, and sharing the lead in both sections. In 2011, he won the 20th Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2011) with 8.5/11 by a clear point and a half, and came second behind Carlsen in the 20th Amber Tournament (Rapid) (2011) section with 7/11 to take the overall prize for the third time.
In June 2008, Aronian won the Karen Asrian Memorial (2008) rapid chess tournament in Yerevan, finishing with 8½/14 ahead of second placed Peter Leko. In August 2010, he attempted to defend the World Rapid Chess title, but lost to eventual champion American Gata Kamsky.

Aronian was declared the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005 and in December 2009 was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia".

Rating

Aronian is only one of seven players to officially cross the 2800 boundary, the others being Garry Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Topalov and Carlsen, and Fabiano Caruana. His highest FIDE rating to date was 2830 in March 2014 when he was ranked #2 in the world, also his highest ranking to date. He has been world #2 for a total of 26 rating periods covering 29 months.

His FIDE ratings as at 1 February 2015 are:

<Standard>: 2777 (his lowest rating since September 2009), making him Armenia's top player, and the world #9 (his lowest ranking since January 2009);

<Rapid>: 2821 (world #5); and

<Blitz>; 2816 (world #6).

After Aronian's round 4 victory over US super-GM Hikaru Nakamura in the Zurich Chess Challenge standard time event on 2 February 2014, his live rating reached a new personal best of 2835.5.

Everett: <May-31-14 SimonWebbsTiger: The surgery was to help Levon breathe easier. So it might help simply because it removes an extraneous, physical factor.>

I'm curious about the surgery, and the recovery. The cranial nerves and bones are pretty interesting things to mess with.

Ever since the above picture has been up, I've noticed that the right side of his face is shorter than the left. His chin and mouth are almost parallel with the bottom of the frame, yet his eyes look tilted to his right.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was indeed his structure that caused him to lose focus late in games. I also would not be surprised if his surgery did not address all of the issues he may have going on in his cranial bones.

<Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's recent visit to Yerevan has revealed the fact that Levon Aronian has agreed to take part in the FIDE World Cup 2015 despite it will take place in Baku, according to Ilyumzhinov's assistant Berik Balgabaev. The latter says in his Twitter that Aronian has confirmed that in person during the lunch given by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.>

fisayo123: <Poisonpawns> Maybe he just fell off and is showing a natural decline. He has been and is still a fantastic chess player, but he was never in the same class as an Anand, Kramnik or even an Ivanchuk. Those players had an incredible dominance spanning two plus decades at the very top of chess and had the extra oomph factor that Levon doesn't. I remember reading somewhere a couple of years ago Karpov not being too convinced by him in terms of being WC material.

Aronian has also had many failures in the Candidates tournament's he's been involved in, failing to deal with the pressure of being favourite. That's bound to have a negative effect on his chess.

I hope he bounces back though. He and Navara are arguably the nicest guys in the chess circuit.

Whitehat1963: Aronian sure has come down in the world rankings. For whatever reason, I don't think he's ever had what it takes to succeed at the highest level. I don't think he'll ever be a threat to Carlsen. Caruana, Giri, and So are much more likely to become Carlsen's headache for the next 15 years.

Whitehat1963: Meanwhile, I suspect that much like Aronian, guys like Nakamura, Karjakin, Vachier-Lagrave and some others are at their peak and still can't manage to put a dent in Carlsen's armor. And I think it's now safe to write off Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Gelfand, and Adams as any kind of threat, (if the later four were ever a threat to take the championship). Carlsen will continue to lose the occasional game to all of these guys, but in Carlsen we may very well be looking at the greatest player ever to push a chess piece so far. It remains to be seen how some other guys like Wei Yi and Richard Rapport develop, but so far, they don't look like much of a threat. For the foreseeable future, it's all about Caruana, Giri, and So. I expect Aronian to continue to resist decline for a while, but I'm afraid he won't ever be a significant threat to take the title.

Catfriend: The new, rejuvenated, Grischuk must be mentioned. Ding Liren, #14 at 22, is also a promising talent. Yu Yangyi is #30 at 20. As for peaking - Karjakin is 25, MVL is 24 (and has a positive score against Carlsen in the recent years). It might be just a little bit early to write them off.

Whitehat1963: <Estoc>, I was a big fan of Radjabov's back in 2007, when he was winning with black and earning results like these: Corus (2007), but lately that Radjabov is nowhere to be found. Today, he seems far too eager to draw because he can no longer find the path to victory. I hate to say it, but I think Radjabov's days among the top 10 are over.

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